Originally Posted by Topcat
Baffert is very very good and I've followed him since his quarter horse days in Los Alamitos and when he lived in Huntington Beach, my area. I've met him and as a former T-bred horse owner I would say Bob was always accessible on the back stretch and friendly to fans. I liked him, still do.
Sadly, IMHO, things seemed to change about the time he divorced his wife Sherry of some 20 years, the mother of four of his children. I know these things happen and there are two sides to each story but when Baffert met Jill (current wife) and started a relationship, Baffert's extended family that are Catholic and attend Mass every Sunday and still lives in the area -well they really sided with Sherry, saying basically you shouldn't cheat on your wife. Jill is 16 years younger and a TV reporter at the time openly talked about being in love with a married man which did not exactly endure him to Baffert's family. I think that estranged Baffert a bit from his family-sort of what happened to Tiger Woods when his Dad died, Dad/family was the rock that kept him tethered. With no tether, anything goes. I guess that is a little harsh but we guys, myself included, have trouble with impulse control .
IMHO It was about that time that Baffert went more Hollywood (stunts like allowing Burger King to pay him to have their mascot right behind him in the winners circle etc) despite not having a connection to the horse.
Maybe it was coincidence but for whatever reason it was about this time that Baffert got into Super Feed/PEDs. IMHO, he was good enough that he didn't have to.
Rob Henie, in his respected West Coast Handicapping Report (WCHR) which was once endorsed by Baffert now openly calls him one of the slime ball trainers or one of the Super Feed trainers for his use of drugs (masked by others ). The only saving grace is he calls D’Amato worse names.
Super Feed Trainers, Baffert, Henie explains "These are the guys who’ve
mastered the labs, meaning, they know how to add to their feed buckets without a sign of negative drug results, masking, etc. There’s a reason why runners from these barns always seem to re-break at the top of the lane, “finding more” as Trevor Denman would say. Front runners in particular from these barns, are even more dangerous, especially when distance is added,logical, as EPO-like effects become much more evident over the longer assignments"
So as bettors we can't ignore Baffert and as horsemen wish for better times
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